because it's not a small world after all

Having grown up in the South, it is quite difficult for me to hold a conversation or write without having a colloquialism or two, or fifteen, pop up in my head and try to make it's way out through my fingertips.  Even though I was raised by a Yankee mama and a southern but-not-typical-southern father, those language and accent roots run deep!

Colloquialisms and cliches are writing no nos.  The former because it immediately prevents a section of the population who are not familiar with the intended meaning behind "bless your heart" or "hold your horses" from understanding the point you are trying to make.  The latter because, as it's definition says, they are so overused we brush straight past them, no longer affected by their meaning.  As a writer, to build your point off cliches is comparable to not having an original thought.  Of course, you could argue that no thought is truly original because as Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes there is "nothing new under the sun."

However, there are times, like this one, where a cliche you've heard your entire life changes meaning completely, or in this case, is completely debunked, at least for me and my understanding.  To which cliche am I referring?  Well, it's to the thought that "it's a small world."

We all know and understand it's meaning and purpose for being spoken.  I bet that we could each tell awesome stories about running into someone you know in the most random of places on the other side of the US or meeting a new person in a foreign country only to find out that you grew up miles away from each other or finding your true love in college and discovering your youth groups went on the same trip to the same place on the same weekend 5 years prior.  Yes, these all happened to me and I guarantee someone else has a story exactly like one of them.

When any of these situations happen, our immediate reaction is to say "it's such a small world" but recently when I had that same thought that everyone else has, hence why it has been moved to cliche status, the thought instead turned to "but is it, really?"  It's a big world, baby--thanks J.J. Heller--but in all seriousness, we do, it's big!  No, in comparison to say the sun the world is quite small.  In comparison to the solar system, the galaxy, the milky way and beyond it's downright teeny, but for us who walk upon it, it's BIG and filled with billions of people who we will never meet and places we will never see.

But that's not the only reason my heart began to think that "it's such a small world" might not be the best reaction.  The real reason is because making that statement disregards the reason why we run into people in random places or share experiences with people that we will meet up again later in life.  It's not because the world is small, it's because our God is so big! 

To give credit to a small world, is to take credit away from the One to which it is due.  In all his Creative, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Sovereign, Merciful, Righteous, Faithfulness (and I could go on) He gives each of us a unique story. in this big ol' history. to live out that includes specific purposes, designed meetings, and a million other things that make us feel significant to His cause, not because it is a small world,  but because He is a BIG God.

The first lines of the prayer Union of Christ from The Valley of Vision reads, "Thou hast made man for the glory of thyself, and when not an instrument of that glory he is a thing of nought."  That's fancy speak for We were made to glorify God and to not do so means we are not fulfilling are purpose, we are doing nothing.  I don't want us to do nothing.  Life is too full of activity, and plans, and dreams, and memories for it to amount to nothing.  I want it to mean something, and the way to do that is to simply give God the glory for it all.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

Do it all for the glory of God because He did indeed, before the foundations of the world, prepared the specific work for us each to do, not because it is a small world to walk in, but because He is a big God who put us in it to fulfill a beautifully, unique purpose to make sure we know we that even in this big world we are anything but insignificant.

I am praying for this shift in your mindset, for you to see that in every step, in every story, in every meeting, in every accomplishment, that you see His hand on you and that you will give Him the glory.  Pray for me.